Perhaps some senior wizards knew how clumsy apprentices were, or understood that most apprentices had no energy left to venture into the field of magic arrays. Thus, whenever an Ascension Ritual required a magic array, it was generally one that was relatively simple to set up. Ruger's combined and slightly modified array was already a degree more complex.
As Ruger worked, he took stock of the things he had on hand.
Magic arrays were not rigid constructs, but neither could they be changed arbitrarily. At least, he could not do that yet.
He had fifteen large magic stones in total-all he owned-but the array had sixteen corresponding positions. He began carefully selecting a hundred sufficiently standardized small magic stones without any signs of damage to replace the final missing stone. It was a last resort, a stopgap measure, but it also reflected his trust in the Supreme Council: those small magic stones were all sufficiently standardized.
The Supreme Council of Wizards had established standards for magic stones in that distant era to make experiments easier for wizards, and to make sharing their results much more convenient.
Ruger rolled his shoulders and stood to one side, admiring his handiwork.
After admiring it for a while, he began checking for anything he had missed. Only after three consecutive inspections revealed no flaws did he stop.
He let out a long breath, then sat to one side to recover through meditation.
In fact, he had already meditated to recover twice while setting up the array. That should not have been necessary; he could easily handle the slight expenditure involved in arranging it. The real reason was fatigue. Without meditating to recover, he could not maintain such intense concentration.
Yet, inexplicably, he felt happy. Whether it was pressure or danger, alongside his worries, it